Southwest Airlines Announces Service to Hawaii in 2018

Southwest Airlines announced that they will start start flying to Hawaii from the U.S. West Coast starting in 2018. Southwest will operate this route using it’s brand new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft with extended range. This is big news on a couple of different fronts. First of all, this gives Southwest Rapid Rewards members more options on award tickets. It also gives Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve holders who like to transfer their points into Southwest another option to fly to Hawaii. And most importantly, this will likely bring down the cost of flying to Hawaii via the “Southwest Effect.” While Southwest is more of a legacy than a low cost carrier these days, they can still disrupt an industry for the better when they announce service to destinations they have never served. As soon as their routes are finalized, we’ll publish them here.